Stonne — the village taken and retaken

After the breakthrough at Sedan, the village of Stonne, perched on a ridge dominating the plain, became a strategic bottleneck: whoever held it watched over the southern approaches to the German bridgehead. The Germans seized it quickly to cover the flank of their advance, while French units, including heavy B1 bis tanks all but invulnerable to the enemy guns of the time, were available in the sector.

Around the village, the fighting took on a tone of extreme violence. The French command had to decide how much effort to devote to it. It could cling on at all costs to retake and hold the village, in the hope of cutting the breakthrough at its base. It could limit the effort to an economical defence, to preserve forces in the face of a general situation that was deteriorating. Or it could withdraw to a more tenable line.

Each option had its price. A ferocious struggle for the ridge could wear down the enemy, but it tied up scarce assets in the south while the bulk of the breakthrough was already racing further north. The stakes went beyond Stonne: it was a question of where to place the effort as the German rush westwards threatened to become uncontrollable.